In the years before baseball became our national pastime, Americans young and old played a variety of other bat and ball games. The state of Connecticut held a preference for wicket, a primitive form of English cricket that developed into a distinctively American game. In this virtual lecture, Alex Dubois will examine surviving evidence of wicket play in eighteenth-century America before tracing the game’s history in Connecticut and New York, including an analysis of wicket rules and equipment.
Featured image: Photograph of Poquonock Drum Corps Members After a Wicket Match, July 4, 1890. Courtesy of the Windsor Historical Society
Speaker Bio: Alex Dubois
Alex Dubois has been the Curator of Collections for the Litchfield Historical Society since 2015. He has a BA in European History from Stonehill College and a MA in History Museum Studies from the Cooperstown Graduate Program. At the Society, Alex oversees the development and care of the institution’s collection of material culture and art, and serves as project lead for the Society’s exhibitions. He is a regular contributor to Connecticut Explored, the magazine of Connecticut history.
